posted Jan 10th, 2013 - NSL-TV resumes the coverage of the female 4way competition at the Mondial Dubai 2012. The last InTime videos featured Round 7, and videos of Round 8 have now been uploaded for reviews.

The coverage is incomplete, as all videos of this round were not available. It is a good opportunity to introduce some of the teams who have not been featured during the earlier rounds and who did not compete on the top of the leaderboard. In fact, the situation at the bottom of the leaderboard is just as interesting as it is on the top.

The final outcome of the Mondial Dubai 2012 shows that it is not so easy for new teams to establish themselves in a field of more experienced nations. The three teams at the bottom of the female leaderboard (New Zealand, Canada, United Arab Emirates) were all coming from nations who participated for the first time at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving. All other 11 nations had attended previous World Meets.

Mondial Dubai 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Women	5,12,E	6,D,B,K	O,8,7	N,13,18	10,21,M	19,H,11	C,G,1,A	20,9,15	16,F,P,Q	2,J,4	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne DB Defenders (FR)	18	28	19	16	18	19	21	19	30	19	207	20.7
2	Golden Knights (US)	19	27	21	15	18	19	21	17	26	18	201	20.1
3	Polaris (NO)	15	25	19	14	16	16	21	15	21	16	178	17.8
4	Bodyflight Langar (UK)	10	20	15	13	12	14	18	14	23	14	153	15.3
5	Sky & Sand (DE)	13	17	13	10	13	13	16	11	21	12	139	13.9
6	Danish Divas (DK)	10	16	14	10	13	12	16	13	19	13	136	13.6
7	Fire (SE)	10	16	14	12	12	14	16	11	17	-	122	13.6
8	China Women (CN)	9	17	13	8	12	14	15	12	21	-	121	13.4
8	Australia Women (AU)	12	16	14	12	10	13	14	11	19	-	121	13.4
10	Illusions (RU)	15	21	14	11	14	12	17	13	0	-	117	13.0
11	Fenix (BR)	9	14	14	9	9	10	16	12	-	-	93	11.6
12	Dubai Asaar Ladies (AE)	11	16	12	8	11	9	13	11	-	-	91	11.4
13	Crimson Fox (CA)	11	14	13	8	11	9	12	10	-	-	88	11.0
14	New Zealand (NZ)	7	7	7	4	7	6	3	4	-	-	45	5.6

Brazil's national team in the female 4way category, Fenix, and China had been in the same situation at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, where they ended up in the two last places at the first World Meet for both countries' female lineups. This time, Fenix left the three newcomers behind at the team's second World Meet. China even made it to the semifinals and finished in 8th place.

Home team Dubai Asaar was on the way to wipe out this history of female 4way competition. The young team of the United Arab Emirates was in 8th place after the first two rounds, with a very realistic chance to make it even into the semifinals. However, the Dubai Asaar Ladies were not able to keep up the pace and dropped down round by round. The home team eventually finished as the best new national team of the three rookie countries.

Round 8 was also the last competition jump for Russia's team Illusions with Dubai Asaar's coach, Alena Chistova, in the lineup. The Illusions had kept up with bronze medal winner Polaris in the opening round and then fell behind round by round, as well. The Russian team had injury troubles and could not even go up for Round 9, which is the reason for the 0-pointer on the leaderboard.

Sweden's team Fire had a similar problem. Annica Carlsson could barely move her arm in the second half of the meet and completed all rounds under heavy pain. Fire was very close to make it to the semifinals, and the Scandinavian battle with the Danish Divas was surely effected by the shoulder problems.

Sweden, China, Austalia, Denmark and Germany all benefitted from Russia's bad luck. The Illusions would have finished in 5th or even 4th place according to the scores in the earlier rounds. Fire still finished with the team's highest meet average in team history.